Book Review: Pine by Francine Toon

‘Pine’ by Francine Toon was published in YEAR. It is a creepy thriller novel which follows a young girl called Lauren, whose mum went missing when she was a baby.

I am not the most avid of thriller readers, but a friend bought this book for me years ago and I finally got around to reading it recently, and it really took me by surprise.

This book depicted bullying in a bleak and depressing way. It shows the extent of alienation and isolation among children when they can identify a victim. I felt for Lauren, because I’ve been Lauren, and the way she is written, where she is filled with anger, despair and confusion is exceptionally apt.

I enjoyed this book, even though thrillers aren’t necessarily my forte due to Toon’s ability to interweave the creepy, haunting elements of grief, doubt, and paranoia. Both Lauren and her father, Niall are haunted by the memory of her mother, who supposedly up and left them when Lauren was a baby.

And when Lauren and Niall are going trick-or-treating, they happen upon a woman with long hair in a thin dressing gown, they take her home with hopes of helping her. But, this strange woman seems to be following Lauren from that point onwards, but nobody else can remember seeing her…

Since I’m not a big thriller fan, I managed to fall for all of the tropes, and believe what Toon wanted the readers to believe, suspecting the right people, as she intended, and judging the ways in which Niall parents his daughter.

This story was very evocative. I really liked the strange dynamic Lauren had with her older friends, having a stronger connection with Anne-Marie and Diana, both of whom are several years older than her, and while they are clearly not good influences on a ten-year-old, smoking weed, drinking and getting underaged tattoos, they clearly have strong feelings toward Lauren and want to take care of her.